We now conclude the three-part Diesel-Oh review series with the Diesel Ressha.

The Diesel Ressha, as is names implies, is a diesel locomotive. This maroon colored train is currently the oldest train in the ToQGer arsenal. Although its ability to function was almost lost, this decaying giant was brought back to into service thanks to ToQ Ichigo’s powerful imagination.

Unlike the other trains in the line, the Diesel Ressha does not have a bright color scheme. Most of the train is a nice maroon color that make it look like a vehicle that has been through a lot of use.

The Diesel Ressha is actually quite long. It is 20 inches long.

Running through the length of the both sides of the Diesel Ressha is a while line that helps visually tie together the design of the train, including the differently colored pieces at the end.

That’s a lot of train!

One of the downsides of this lengthy locomotive is that the connection points on the center piece are not adequately strong enough to hold the train together if you pick it up with one hand. Doing so will cause one of the two ends to quickly come off the center piece.

At the rear of the Diesel Ressha are a couple of box cars that match the colors of the Tank and Car Carrier Ressha. The cyan boxcar can even open its door to reveal the interior of the boxcar.

Looking inside, you can see that this piece was molded in maroon and that the cyan was painted over the maroon plastic.Behind those boxcars there is a flatbed with a maroon box as its cargo.

Once again the details on this train are pretty nice considering the size of these trains. My favorite part of the Diesel Ressha are the exposed engine heads at the front of the train. These little silver parts remind you that that there is pure power running through this train.

On the underside, we have some wheels for rolling the train around.

At the rear of the middle piece, we have the ToQGer logo.

The Diesel Ressha can be separated into three parts, each with a hitch at the rear and a circular hole at the front.

The Diesel-Oh is a long-legged mecha that looks blocky and rather flat. But I must say that I like its simplistic and retro look.

My favorite things about this robot are the retro-looking face and the golden engine on its chest. It takes a pretty brave bot to defiantly display its power source on its unprotected chest.

My biggest dislike of the toy is the gaps that are beneath the head of the robot.

But despite this inaccuracy, the DX Diesel-Oh is a good representation of its TV counterpart.

At the back of the robot we can see the wheels that help the individual trains roll around.

Thanks to the wheels, you can actually roll the Diesel-Oh on its back and it can serve as a transportation robot. As far as the show is concerned this is not a feature of the Diesel-Oh… yet. You never know though, they did make the ToQ-Oh’s train-dong an actual feature of the ToQ-Oh, so stranger things have happened.

The Diesel-Oh does not come with any weapons because this mighty mecha relies solely on power to defeat its enemies.

Leg articulation is very limited. The thighs can separate a little bit.

On the other hand, the train arms can extend out and the shoulders rotate and .

Cho ToQ-Oh

The Cho ToQ-OH is as another simple combination. The parts for the Diesel-Oh attach next to, in between or above other parts of the ToQ-Oh.

The center piece of the Diesel Ressha turns into a new headpiece for the Cho ToQ-Oh.

The Tank and Car Carrier Ressha fold 90 degrees when you press the switches on their sides. These two trains then attach to the sides of the legs. Finally the main parts of the Diesel Ressha tuck in between the body of the ToQ-Oh and the arms.

So I have to say this is one ugly combination. Rather than make the super form of the ToQ-Oh look superior to the ToQ-Oh, it just makes the toy wider and a bit taller. This combination treats the trains as if they were Legos, to be stacked on each other.

I really dislike how the Car Carrier Ressha and Tank Ressha look like Tetris blocks on the side of the train. Especially since they have the rectangular recesses exposed.

While the rectangular recesses play a role in the Cho ToQ-Oh final attack, the Cho ToQ-Oh Full Burst Finish, I still cannot get over how unsightly they look in this combination.

ToQ-Oh Full Burst Finish

In terms of accuracy, the Cho ToQ-Oh is much wider than its TV counterpart. The toy also lacks the human proportions of the Cho ToQ-Oh’s on-screen version. This is due to the fact that the trains in the show are more compactly placed next to each other and also due to the magic shrinking of the trains that occurs to give the Cho ToQ-Oh in the show better proportions. The maroon pieces in between the arm and leg trains are two peices that shrink in the show and look better in that representation of the Cho ToQ-Oh. On the toy, these maroon pieces just look unnecessary, especially thanks to the exposed connection points at the bottom.

Articulation with the Cho ToQ-Oh is pretty limited. You can rotate the arms a full 360 degrees. Also, the canons on the shoulders rotate forward a good 60 degrees.

Finally, the Diesel Ressha can also interact with the ToQ Changer. So check out my video review to listen in on the sounds that he ToQ Changer produces when you insert the Diesel Ressha into it.

So in the end, the Diesel Ressha is a nice looking retro train that is the main compopent for a cool looking retro robot. However, its combination with ToQ-Oh leaves much to be desired. The current trend with Super Sentai toys, as well as other toy lines, is to simplify the toys so that they are easier to handle and transform in order to make the toy lines more accessible to younger audiences. I get that. With that in mind, I do find the transformation between the components trains of the Diesel-Oh to the Diesel-Oh Ressha is simple yet satisfying. On the other hand, I find that forming the Cho ToQ-Oh feels like nothing more than stacking Legos together. Although I am not a fan of the official combination of the Diesel-Oh and the ToQ-Oh, the new possibilities opened up by the ability to swap trains between the two is actually quite a bit of fun. It makes for fun play time that relies on IMAAAGINATTION!

Comments

Thanks for going into extra detail on the other possible combinations of these robots; I'd been wondering about whether certain part-swaps would be feasible. I'm not a fan of the Cho ToQ-Oh for the same reasons you cite, but I like a lot of the potential alternate combinations. In fact, it looks like they can be mix-and-matched to make niftier-looking versions of both mecha.

The next thing I'm super-curious about is whether there's any potential for the non-Den-O EX mecha to form feet or arms, or if they're pretty much relegated to being chest pieces.

I'm also curious about the inverted-T indentations on Diesel Ressha (normally hidden by the engine bib.) I wonder if they're connection points for future mecha. It's odd to realize I like different combinations of this Sentai's mecha significantly more than most in-show combinations. I'm guessing the super-awkward feet extensions for Cho ToQ-Oh are there to keep the whole thing from falling forward, but man, it looks awful.

From the picture of all the EX resshas I have seen, including the one from Goseiger and Gokaiger, it appears that they will all serve the function of being the chest piece on the ToQ-Oh. But we have not yet seen all of the EX Resshas, so we might get other feet Ressha like the Den-O.

So far the "T" indentation are only for attaching the head piece to the Diesel Oh. If you look at the leaked pictures of the Build Ressha, it looks like that part attaches atop of the one of the Build Ressha's pieces in a similar fashion to how it attaches to the Cho ToQ-OH.

I would give the Tank and Car Carrier Ressha points for being functional if they were indeed needed to keep the Cho ToQ-Oh upright. However, the Cho ToQ-Oh can stand just fine without these pieces. Having the legs at a slight angle is enough to keep that combination from toppling over.

The simplicity of recent combinations in Kyoryuger and ToQGer does give a different perspective on the Go-Busters mecha. Sure the Gobuster-Oh was a clusterF@ck of a mecha, but at least the toys were ambitious.

I feel they rushed this series after Kyoryuger, the sentai suits looks awful, the idea is unattractive, and the "mecha-oh's" are the ugliest thing I have seen in a while on the media. They even look like knock off... I think that chinesse Thomas that transform into a mecha is better than this...